After upgrading FDM columns containing space(s) were masked as NULL
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After upgrading FDM columns containing space(s) were masked as NULL

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Article ID: 269836

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Updated On:

Products

CA Test Data Manager (Data Finder / Grid Tools)

Issue/Introduction

We recently upgraded our FDM release, and noticed that now we have some masking jobs, where fields containing "space" characters are being masked as "NULL". This was not happening in the previous release of FDM.

Data as loaded in the test Table before masking

After masking with our current version of FDM
2023-06-23 08:56:06.502 main - Fastdatamasker version: 4.10.86.0 
2023-06-23 08:56:06.502 main - Fastdatamasker build date - February 21 2023 

After masking with new release of FDM
2023-06-23 08:58:45.177 main - Fastdatamasker version: 4.10.122.0 
2023-06-23 08:58:45.177 main - Fastdatamasker build date - May 22 2023 

Notice that the column "VALEUR_DE_TEST" for rows 1 and 9, which contains space and spaces, are masked as NULL and the status of the row is changed from S(kip) to P(rocessed)

Environment

Release : FDM 4.10.122.0

Cause

Engineering has done some work around the behavior of how to treat blank spaces and Nulls when masking. They recently fixed a defect where the EMPTYASNULL was not working as expected. Therefore, if you have started seeing this issue after a recent upgrade to FDM or Portal, it could be due to the rework done for these options.

Resolution

There are three masking options related to the handling of "space" or "blank" characters:

  • BLANKSASNULLS - When set to "Y", character data types, if the column contains "blanks" to the column width, treat as a null for keepnulls in the masking CSV.

  • EMPTYASNULL - When set to "Y", for character data types if the column contains a blank or spaces only, treat as a null for keepnulls in the masking CSV.

  • TRIMVALUES - Trim the value to be masked before masking,
    Default value = Y
         NOTE: Y = don't mask columns that contain blanks, empty strings, or nulls
                     N = mask columns that contain blanks, empty strings, or nulls

Changing the option EMPTYASNULL=N will correct the behavior, and not mask those fields containing a "space" character.

Additional Information

For more information regarding TDM Masking Options, see https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/ca-enterprise-software/devops/test-data-management/4-10/reference/masking-functions-and-parameters/masking-options.html

 

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